


Friends Don't

by Riverspirit86



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Country Music, F/M, Plaid Paramour, Rey and Ben are dense, country boy ben solo, friends don't by maddie and tae, high school age then college age, kinda slow burn, long distance, skype sessions, time skip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 14:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20472422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riverspirit86/pseuds/Riverspirit86
Summary: Inspired by the song Friends Don't, as requested by sciosophia in the Plaid Paramour exchange! Will have multiple chapters!





	Friends Don't

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sciosophia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciosophia/gifts).

Rey didn’t remember much of life in London. Repressed memories, her therapist said. What she did remember was being told at the orphanage, just a year before she aged out of the system, that they had found her grandfather, all the way in America. She remembered the flight, stepping foot in a new country for the first time, and her grandfather’s smiling face and open arms. Ben Kenobi was a kind man and treated Rey to so many new experiences. The biggest experience was going to high school in America. Rey had only attended the orphanage’s school, and had never really made friends with any of the other children there. So even though Jakku high was a relatively small school, it was still a bit overwhelming on Rey’s first day of senior year.

After introducing herself to her homeroom class, the teacher instructed her to sit in the only empty seat next to a dark haired boy, whose ears stood out just a bit more than usual. He was quiet, keeping to himself. But Rey was fascinated by him. There was something about him that drew her in. She had to find out more. So after class, she attempted to strike up a conversation.

“Hi. I’m Rey.”

Silence.

“Um, what’s your name?”

Silence. Then a quiet voice.

“Ben Solo.”

She smiled.

“Well, Ben, it’s nice to meet you. I hope we can be friends.”

He just nodded, ears slowly turning red, and picked up his backpack before leaving the room.

Despite the school being small, only a couple hallways and roughly three or four classrooms per hallway, Rey got lost a few times, making it to several of her classes a bit late. Why they didn’t assign a fellow student as a guide didn’t make sense to Rey, but she was happy to see Ben in her fourth and seventh period classes. At least there was one familiar face to begin and end her day with.

When the last bell rang, Rey headed to her locker to drop off most of her books, before heading out the main door of the school. Her grandfather lived only a ten minute walk from the school, so Rey decided she would walk as long as the weather was nice. Her grandfather had told her that Midwest winters could be rough, so she wanted to enjoy the sunshine and heat for as long as possible. But when a beat up, old and rusted, red pickup pulled up and idled next to her, Rey was worried. This town, her grandfather said, was a quiet and gentle place. Crimes rarely happened here. Yet, living in an orphanage, where kids fought over scraps of food and weren’t afraid to hurt another child to get it, Rey was more than wary. But the boy, with a mess of black hair and ears as red as his car, sitting in the driver’s seat eased her fears. The passenger window rolled down and Ben’s soft voice barely made it over the rumbling of the engine.

“Why are you walking?”

Rey just smiled and walked up to the open window, leaning on the hot metal, careful not to burn herself. “My grandfather lives just down the road. I wanted to enjoy the sunshine.”

His grimace made her laugh.

“Why would anyone enjoy the sunshine and this heat? Fall and winter are the vastly superior seasons.” He muttered, though the corner of his mouth pulled up in the beginnings of a smile when she laughed. 

“Well, considering the temperatures I’m used to normally average around twenty-three and a half degrees during the summer, and is often rainy, I’d say I deserve a little sunshine.”

“Christ, Rey, London only gets to well below freezing in the summer? How did you survive? And how does it rain when it’s that cold? Wouldn’t it be snow?”

Rey looked at Ben in confusion. Below freezing? She said twenty-three and a half, not zero. And of course it would rain in the summer. It would be an extremely unusual day if it snowed during July or August. But then she realized what was going on.

“Oh! I said my temperature in Celsius, not Farenheit. Sorry, Ben! It averages around seventy-three to seventy-four degrees in July and August, so this heat and sunshine isn’t something I’m used to. So I wanted to soak it all in.”

Ben’s look of shock turned slowly into a smile, one that grew wider with every passing second. Before too long, they both broke into giggles, then full blown laughter. After a couple laughter filled moments, they sobered up, smiling at each other. They stared at each other for a moment, a spark igniting within their hearts, both unsure of what they were feeling and unaware the other was feeling the same thing. Ben’s exclamation broke the moment.

“Shit! I forgot the whole reason I stopped! Rey, I saw you walking and wanted to offer to drive you home. You don’t have to, if you want to enjoy the sunshine, but I just thought it would be nice to get to know each other more and, I don’t know, maybe become . . . friends?” 

Ben’s voice trailed off into a whisper and Rey had to strain to hear his last few words. When she realized what he had said, and why he had stopped, she felt a flush come to her face, one not caused by the sun and heat. The same blush stained Ben’s ears red, and his cheeks as well, though his face was turned away from her, so she couldn’t see the lovely red that covered him from ear to ear. 

“I’d like that, Ben. Thank you.”

* * *

  
The school year flew by, fall, winter, and spring seeing Ben and Rey becoming closer and closer. When he had taken her home, on her first day of school, they realized that his family knew her grandfather, and that Ben was actually named after him. Rey got to know Ben’s parents shortly after that realization. Leia, the town’s mayor, loved Rey, and she loved her too, but Rey had a special bond with Ben’s dad, Han. Rey had always been a bit of a tinkerer, and Han took her under his wing and taught her all he knew about fixing cars and other various machines that ended up in his repair shop. Ben wasn’t all too fond of her bond with his dad, as they didn’t often see eye to eye, but his eyes still lit up whenever Rey entered the room, even after spending hours in Han’s garage and being covered in oil and grease. 

But Rey never saw how he looked at her.

Finally, school ended and summer was ushered in by all the seniors walked across the stage at graduation. Ben’s family held a joint party for him and Rey at their house, guests spread throughout the villa and on the lawn. Rey had never had so many people celebrating her in her entire life. Whenever she was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of people congratulating her, all she had to do was look over in Ben’s direction, and a peace fell over her. His presence quieted her mind, silenced her thoughts that she wasn’t good enough, brought a gentle calmness to her being. 

He was such a good friend to her. She hoped she could be just as good of a friend to him, and that she brought the same peace that he brought her. She was nervous about her decision about her future, and how Ben would take it. He was quick to worry, and anger, but he always calmed down whenever she laid a hand on his arm. She had to tell him what she was planning, and soon. She thanked the people she was talking to, even though she didn’t know who they were, and walked over to where Ben was talking with Poe and his family. 

“Hey, Ben? Can I talk to you for a moment?” She wrung her hands, worried, twisting the friendship ring he had gotten her as an early graduation gift. She waited until he excused himself from his conversation before taking his hand and leading him to a quiet spot on the outskirts of the party.

“Rey, is everything okay?”

She couldn’t look him in the eye, and continued to play with her ring with one hand.

“Rey?”

“Ben, I have to tell you something. Something important, that can’t wait.”

Pink tinted his ears as he looked at her with hopeful eyes. Rey realized they were still holding hands, but she couldn’t bear to let go. She needed his silent strength to tell him the words that had been burning on her tongue since they graduated.

“Ben, I’m going to college in England. I leave at the end of summer.”

His face fell, the hope dying in his gaze. What he was hopeful for, Rey didn’t know, but she couldn’t bear to see the sadness that covered his face. She gripped his hand tightly, the words spilling from her mouth.

“We can skype every day. I’ll come home for all the breaks. We’ll still be friends, right Ben?”

The sadness twisted into something like pain and a halfhearted smile made its way across his face. Rey looked up at Ben, silently begging him to say something, anything. She would be heartbroken if he didn’t want to stay friends, but she would take him screaming at her over the silence that fell between them. It was awkward, the tension so palpable she could feel it pressing on her shoulders, and on her heart. Things weren’t supposed to be awkward between them. They were best friends.

“Yeah, Rey. Of course we’ll still be friends. Nothing will ever come between our friendship.”

His hand slipped out of hers at his words and his posture changed. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked away from her worried gaze, staring over her shoulder at the party still going on without them. A barrier fell between them, like he had closed a door on her, shutting her out. This wasn’t how she wanted it to be. She had wanted him to be happy for her, not upset with her. She wanted her best friend back. The one that always laughed whenever she made a funny face, the one that commented on how messy the buns in her hair were whenever she came into class late. She wanted that and so much more. But that Ben was far away right now, and she just had to hope he would come back to her soon.

“We still have the summer. I don’t leave until the last week. Let’s just make the most of it, okay? Ben?”

He just nodded before walking away. 

Rey didn’t know why her heart hurt so much.


End file.
